SBI Securities Co. Ltd. Acquires New Holdings in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 7,849 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of GERN. Readystate Asset Management LP acquired a new stake in Geron in the third quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Rovin Capital UT ADV boosted its stake in Geron by 26.9% in the fourth quarter. Rovin Capital UT ADV now owns 17,270 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 3,660 shares in the last quarter. Monterey Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new stake in Geron in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $63,000. Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new stake in Geron in the third quarter valued at approximately $67,000. Finally, US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in Geron by 68.4% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 18,296 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $83,000 after acquiring an additional 7,429 shares in the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. B. Riley downgraded shares of Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $3.50 to $2.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $5.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $4.00 price objective (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Geron has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5.68.

Geron Stock Up 10.6 %

GERN opened at $1.77 on Thursday. Geron Co. has a fifty-two week low of $1.46 and a fifty-two week high of $5.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a current ratio of 2.89. The company has a fifty day moving average of $2.69 and a two-hundred day moving average of $3.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.53 and a beta of 0.53.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04). The business had revenue of $47.54 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $45.29 million. Geron had a negative net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. On average, research analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current year.

About Geron

Geron Corporation, a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapeutics for myeloid hematologic malignancies. It develops imetelstat, a telomerase inhibitor that is in Phase 3 clinical trials, which inhibits the uncontrolled proliferation of malignant stem and progenitor cells in myeloid hematologic malignancies for the treatment of low or intermediate-1 risk myelodysplastic syndromes and intermediate-2 or high-risk myelofibrosis.